The niceness of my daughters playing with their doll house together, and hoping the camaraderie lasts all morning.

The anxiety over what to do with my rabbits right now while they are duking it out for dominance. Move them to a neutral territory again? But how, when I have kids in the house today?

All the plans I have for the future, and how will they pan out? Are they good plans or bad?

How will I get through this day of work when I am so tired, even though I had a great night of sleep?

I need to make Fifi and Scott's lunches.

I need to pay my car tax.

I need groceries.

I am having another baby, holy cow.

I am still in my dressing gown and must be ready for work in one hour.

The children are still in their pajamas and need to be ready for school and nursery in one hour.

My husband is still in bed and needs to be ready for work in less than one hour. I need to wake him up.

I need to clean the kitchen from last night's dishes. Oops.

I have recently learned that I no longer need to double space between sentences, but I don't think my fingers will ever learn this concept, nor is my brain willing to give up this once important typographical rule.

Sunday, April 22, 2012

In about an hour and a half, our new bunny will be arriving to meet her betrothed.

We will see how this goes...

Bunnies are happier in pairs, so that is why we have decided to get a bunny friend for Chewy. However, the bonding experience can sometimes take a while and is often met at first with resistance by both animals, so I am expecting the process to take a great deal of time and patience. Male/female pairs work the best, which is why we chose a girl from the rabbit rescue centre, so Lolly has been calling this new bunny 'Chewy's life'. And by 'life' she means 'wife' but I suppose either is applicable!

Today, we had a funny conversation with the kids about the bunny date that is set for this afternoon. Besides Fifi getting exasperated and declaring she wasn't excited because 'this is going to be a struggle' (haha), she also came out with this brilliant comment:

Scott: What if Chewy and his wife end up having kids?
Fifi: Dad, you know they can't, they've both been broken!
Me: No, dear, fixed.
Scott: I think Fifi's term is more accurate.

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

The previous curtains in the girls' room were pink, and when we moved into this new flat with bigger windows, I had to attempt this project for the first time. I bought some printed fabric and inserted a panel to make them long enough. They ended up like this:

Now that I am redecorating to accommodate a little boy, I tried again. I bought some cheap children's red curtains, and knowing they wouldn't be long enough, I bought the fabric to insert. However, when I opened the curtains, I discovered they had no lining, which is no use in a country where the sun comes up at 4am during the summer, so I also bought a couple of twin-size white sheets to attach as lining.

Now before I continue, I should say this:I had found a set of red curtains in IKEA for £24.99. They were more than long enough, thick and lined. When I saw these cheap kids' pair in Wilkinsons for £14.99, I thought, 'I'll save myself some money and make them myself! Even after spending another £5 on a metre of fabric, I'll still have saved money, not even including the petrol to IKEA!'

But then, like I said, I discovered there was no lining so I had to buy a sheet for each curtain. Then, when I went to buy the fabric, the length wasn't quite long enough (or not even close) so I had to buy 2 metres instead of just one.

So it ended up like this:Curtains - £14.99Sheets for lining - £9.902 metres of fabric - £11.90Total for my 'cheaper' curtains: £36.79

Dammit.

But THEN I considered how much MORE I would've spent at IKEA besides the £24.99 curtains (plus petrol) and I figure in the end I probably DID save some money... I can easily spend £50 or £60 effortlessly in IKEA, so still a savings? Very likely.

The end result was this:

(As you will see, I haven't trimmed down the length of the lining yet. I will get to that someday... or not. Maybe it'll keep the cold out better or something...)

Sunday, April 15, 2012

I am well and truly in the 'nesting phase' of my pregnancy. I've been doing all kinds of ridiculous things, like ironing (what?!), dusting, sorting and most recently, crafting. I have a few projects I want to complete, and I am starting to actually get around to them.

One thing I've been meaning to do is cover some bulletin/cork boards with fabric for the kids' room. I found this tutorial online and last night I finally got around to doing it.

I had three boards, one for each child, to put their special achievements and artwork on. They started out as simple boards from Tesco.

Then I painted the frames in the colours that I will be trying to limit their room to.

As for the fabric, I was torn as to which way to go. I could either keep their room in the black and white with some red and orange (and now some green for baby boy), or go all colourful. It was a tough decision, especially after Fifi said she only liked the colourful ones and was not going to like the black and white.

Well, Fifi lost. They already have a black and white zebra bedspread (with green sheets) and a black toy cupboard, and their bed frame is black. The bunk bed has a solid red tent over it and a red and orange bedspread, and there are several red photo frames already in the room. And the curtains I've picked out to replace their pink ones are red. So I decided to stick with the black and white theme with the tri-colour accents.

So I dressed the frames with the fabric and tried to cut the fabric with a rotary cutter I have had for years and never used.

There is a reason a klutz like me should not use rotary cutters. I sliced my finger open on it. Luckily I didn't bleed all over the fabric... although the red would've matched! I also made a huge mess of the edges. The tutorial suggests ribbon trimming, but I hadn't intended to bother; now I had no choice. I scoured the house looking for strips of ribbon long enough to frame the boards, and all I found were lace - fine for the girls but not the boy - and some black and white tartan. So I ended up trimming the boards after all. The old-fashioned lace was a bit funny looking on top of the modern prints, so I double lined them with the tartan on top of the lace and somehow the odd mix of modern fabric, old yellowed lace and tartan ribbon ended up working. Thank goodness I went with the black and white look!

Here is my finished product.

I was very pleased with the outcome but wasn't sure how the kids, particularly Fifi, would react. I had decided ahead of time not to let Fifi be a madam about it. But when she came in this morning and saw them, she gasped and said, "Oh! I didn't expect them to be THAT nice!" She loves hers. (Hers is the swirly one.)

****

Furthermore, while I had the paints out last night, I decided to get a few other minor projects sorted. I had painted the kids' IKEA chairs orange about a year ago, but they had by this time been scuffed, scraped and drawn all over with an ink pen. So I repainted the chairs. I had also painted some IKEA mirrors pink back when Fifi was a baby to match her then pink and green bedroom. Since I'm trying to de-girlify the room to make space for our little man, I repainted these as well.

(Paint still drying in this photo. It didn't dry splotchy like it looks here.)

From this...

...to this.

All in all, a very productive night, considering I also ironed all of Scott's shirts for the week (by gum, I even used the spray starch!), folded and put away two loads of laundry, cleaned and hoovered the living room and baked a chocolate cake. The only thing I didn't get around to was that last load of laundry hanging on the pulley and putting new glass in a broken frame. I will do those tonight... I might even repaint the frame before putting new glass in it! Yes, I think I will do that.

Thursday, April 05, 2012

It being Maundy Thursday, I thought I'd offer a bit of food for thought for anyone interested.

There's not much more I can say that the below articles don't say much, much more clearly, so I'll just post a link to this article.

The question is: Did Jesus want to avoid the cross? When he said 'not my will but yours be done', was he actually wavering in his commitment to the mission he had been sent to earth for, and most willingly?

Not only did Jesus repeatedly acknowledge that his death would come to pass, he also repeatedly stated his confident commitment to dying on behalf of sinners. Jesus rebuked the Pharisees just before his last trip to Jerusalem, challenging them, "Go tell that fox [Herod], 'I will drive out demons and heal people today and tomorrow, and on the third day I will reach my goal.' In any case I must keep going today and tomorrow and the next day - for surely no prophet can die outside Jerusalem" (Luke 13:32-33).

After Jesus's resurrection he rebuked two of his disciples for failing to understand the necessity of his death, burial and resurrection, saying, "How foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Did not the Christ have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?" Even though Christ said this after his resurrection, there is no reason to believe that he came to this conviction after his struggle in the Garden. In fact, he clearly says that even the disciples should have always known the inevitability of the cross because of the prophets. If he held the disciples accountable for what the prophets said, how much more would he, the very One of whom they prophesied, (5) be held accountable?

In fact, the crucifixion of Christ is the gospel (1 Corinthians 15:1-4). The gospel without the cross is no gospel at all (1 Cor. 2:2). Jesus concluded his commission of the disciples with this confident focus: "This is what is written: The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem" (Luke 24:46-47).

...In the garden Jesus said that He was about to die; in Hebrews we are told that He was praying to the One "...able to save Him from death..." We are also told that the Father heard His prayer. Obviously this does not mean that God simply "heard" Him. It is a basic truth that God "hears" everything, why state it in this passage? But when God heard Jesus, it means that the Father answered Jesus' prayer. Jesus had said the Father always heard His prayers.

The Father heard His prayer because of His piety, holiness. Jesus was obedient unto death. Once He became aware of His need to die on the cross, He never wavered. He never looks for an escape. He was obedient, obedient to death, even death on the cross. His was not a hesitating obedience but a holy, joyful, whole-hearted obedience. He did not look for a way out of His calling...ever. We cannot judge His obedience by the obedience which we see in others and maybe see in ourselves. His obedience was perfect, from the heart, unwavering, joyful. We should not think of His pure obedience in the light of our anemic obedience.

And finally, if all that is too complicated, or too in depth for you to follow, this man says it pretty succinctly (though without all the Scriptural evidence of the above articles).

...The Bible teaches that Jesus’ vision never stalled-out on death. Jesus saw right through the cross to the resurrection on the other side. You and I may fear death, but Jesus never did. You and I may doubt God’s purposes in suffering, but Jesus never did. Ever! What was definitive for Jesus was the joy set before Him, not death....

The model that Jesus gives us is not that he had doubts and fears like we do. The model that He gives us is perfection. We don’t ever have to give in to doubt and to fear. Doubt and fear have no place in those who are trusting in the promises of the God who resurrects from the dead, and they certainly never had any place in Jesus.

about the blogger

lori arnold mcfarlane

is a blogger and author living in Arkansas.

When she's not writing, working or herding her three children and asshole cat, Lori enjoys quietly reading (any book will do), drinking hot tea (milk, no sugar), exercising (sometimes) and when the notion hits, sewing, baking or crafting.

All opinions on this blog are entirely her own, and can and will probably one day be used against her in the court of law. Or in an attack ad, should she ever run for public office. They do not reflect the opinions of her employer.